Garment finisher and means for adjusting size of bag thereof



June 1959 F. H. RICHTERKESSING ET/u. 2,889,969

GARMENT FINISHER AND MEANSFOB ADJUSTING SIZE OF BAG THEREOF Filed July 22, 1.95"! 4 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTORS FRANK H. RICHTERKESSING WALTER M. meow ATTORNEY GARMENT FINISHER AND MEANS FOR ADJUSTING SIZE OF BAG THEREOF Filed July 22, 1957 June 9, 1959 F. H. RICHTERKESSING ET AL 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTORS FRANK H. RICHTERKESSlNG WALTER M. INGOLD ATTORNEY June 1959 F. H. RICHTERKESSING ETAL 2,889,969

GARMENT FINISHER AND MEANS FOR ADJUSTING SIZE OF BAG THEREOF Filed July 22, 1957 4 Sheets-Sheet s 4 INVENTORS FRANK H. RICHTERKESSING WALTER, M. lNGOLD BY F.

ATTORNEY June 9, 1959 F. H. RICHTERKESSING ETAL 2,889,969

GARMENT FINISHER AND MEANS FOR ADJUSTING sIzE OF BAG THEREOF Filed July 22, 1957 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 INVENTORS FRAN K H RICHTER KESSING WALTER. M. INGOLD ATTORNEY.

i and, more particularly,

United States Patent GARMENT FINISHER AND MEANS FOR ADJUST- ING SIZE OF BAG THEREOF Application July 22, 1957, Serial No. 673,360 Claims. (Cl. 223-67) This invention relates to a bag-type garment finisher to an improved means for rapidly, easily and accurately adjusting the size of the bag in order to accommodate a wide range of sizes and styles of garments.

An object of the invention is to provide an improved means for selectively adjusting the size of the bag and which is operated from a single control station by a convenient, relatively effortless manual operation by the operator of the finisher.

Another object is to provide an improved lever actuated means for selectively adjusting the size of the bag and with the lever position being related to a conveniently located scale in order rapidly to insure a desired size of .bag.

Another object is to provide an improved lever actuated means for selectively adjusting the size of the bag and maintaining the bag size by locking of the lever in a desired position.

Another object is to provide an improved mechanical linkage for reducing the distance of the flexible connection between a control handle and a flexible means for regulating the size of a garment finisher bag.

A further object is to provide an improved means for selectively adjusting the size of the bag at a plurality of regions and without obstruction to the uniform flow of processing fluids through the bag.

Other objects and advantages will be apparent to those skilled in the art upon reference to the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which:

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of the complete garment finisher embodying the invention.

Fig. 2 is a perspective view of the form on which the bag is supported and with the bag and'portions of the form removed.

Fig. 2A is a partial sectional view of the form and base assembly with the bag removed.

Fig. 3 is a plan view along line 3-3 of Fig. 2 with portions of the form removed.

Fig. 4 is an elevation view showing the lever and connected linkage for selectively controlling the bag size in the region of the waist. I

Fig. 5 is an elevation view showing the lever and connected linkage for selectively. controlling the bag size in the region of the hips. I

Fig. 6 is an elevation -view showing the lever and connected linkage for selectively controlling the bag size in the region near the bottom of the bag.

Fig. 7 is a detail view showing the means for locking the lever in place at a selected adjustment of bag size.

Fig. 8 is a plan view of the lever and connected linkage of Fig. 6, and

Fig. 9 is a detail view showing one means for securing the extreme lower edge of the bag.

In copending application, Serial No. 586,710, filed May 23, 1956, Frank H. Richterkessing, together with William M. Cissell, have disclosed a bag-type garment finisher 2,889,969 Patented June 9, 1959 having various novel features contributing to eificient usage by the operator thereof. In that application, an improved arrangement of push-pull cables is shown for adjustment of the bag size. The present invention, in contrast to that invention, and to various other pushpull devices and lever actuated chain and cord devices of the prior art, serves to enable the operator to make bag adjustments more rapidly, more easily, and more accurately and thus to increase his efficiency materially. In accordance with this invention, the operator is not required to remain at a fixed station during the entire cycle of operation and on the contrary, is able to conduct operations on two or more finishers simultaneously during at least a portion of the time required for processing the garments.

Referring first to Fig. 1, there is shown a distendable, fiuid-pervious bag 10 formed of nylon, or the like, and encasing an inner form mounted for rotation upon and supported by a stationary base assembly 11. A suitable electric motor 12 drives a blower 13 which passes air under control of an automatic damper (not shown) over a steam coil 14 (Fig. 2A) and into the base of the form and thence into contact with the bag. A rigid, generally cylindrical column 15 is connected at its lower end with the steam coil and has disposed therein at an upper end a suitable spring pressed valve (not shown) adapted to be opened by pivoted lever 16, spring biased to valve closing position, upon downward movement of an actuating rod 17. At its extreme upper end the column is provided with a bearing seat 18 upon which the form is adapted to rest. A conventional solenoid 19 serves to move the valve actuating rod when energized by electrical current under control of an automatic timer 20. This timer is suitably mounted at a convenient operating' station upon a hollow bracket 21 afiixed to the stationary base assembly, and containing the electrical leads to the timer, as disclosed in the copending application. The timer serves to energize the solenoid and motor in a selected relation to each other, and, as will be apparent, upon placing the automatic timer in operation, the desired flow of air and steam into bag 10 is thereafter automatic and does not require the continual presence of the operator at the particular finisher during that flow of processing fluids.

Referring now to Figs. 2 and 2A, the improved form comprises an elongated front support member 24 extending from a circular perforated bottom plate 25 to a shoulder form section 26. A rear support member 27 likewise extends between the bottom plate and shoulder form, but preferably does not lie in a single plane, being offset toward the axis of the form in the central region thereof. As will later appear, this configuration permits the bag to assume a circular, rather than an oval cross section in the region of the waist portion of the bag. The unobstructed space within the bag at this waist portion, moreover, permits small garments to 'be finished upon the same form as much larger garments. The form support members 24 and 27 are provided with a series of apertures permitting processing fluids to pass readily therethrough, thus to assist in a uniform distribution of those fluids against the entire inner surface of the bag suspended on the form. The support members, in addition, have flat outwardly disposed surfaces adapted to serve as an abutment against which resiliently mounted front and rear clamps may be selectively pressed, the front clamp 28 being shown in Fig. 1.

Intermediate the ends of the front and rear support members, a main cross member 29 and one or more smaller cross members 30 and 31 are rigidly aflixed to those support members and serve to establish a stable truss-like construction for the entire form. Adjacent the olfset portion of the rear support member a bracket 32 dynamic balance.

is affixed to the support member and has a cup-shaped bearing surface adapted to support the entire form and its attachments for rotatable movement upon the bearing seat 18 of the stationary steam column 15. Centrally of the bottom plate 25 a circular aperture 33 is provided (Fig. 3) thus permitting the bottom plate to be journalled around the cylindrical steam column for lateral stability and The form, as thus mounted, may be rotated with little effort from the operators position, but its weight prevents accidental rotation which might contribute to lost motion by the operator. A suitable frame work 34 is mounted upon cross member 29 and a porous steam bafile 35, such as a small asbestos bag, may readily be hung thereover in enveloping relation to the steam distributor on steam column 15.

Adjacent the bottom plate of the form a lateral housing 40 is rigidly attached thereto and is of a size and at a location permitting the form to be rotated without interference of that housing with the stationary base if or the attachments thereto. This housing serves to mount not only the control levers for the several bag size adjusting devices, but also the control means for the front clamp and as a feature of the invention the handles 41, 42 and 43 for those bag size adjusting devices and the handle 44 for that clamp are all mounted in a relatively closely spaced cluster, which, when the form is in normal operating position, is closely spaced with respect to timer 20. In this Way the operator has at one convenient station all of the controls which he is required to manipulate during the normal finishing operation.

Considering now Figs. 2, 4 and 7, an important feature of the invention is disclosed with respect to the adjustment of the waist size of the bag. At its upper extremity, the housing 40 is provided with an arcuate surface 45 having a slot 46 therein. Handle 41 is rotatably mounted in a threaded aperture 47 (Fig. 7), located at one end of a pivoted lever 48 and at the bottom of the aperture and below the bottom of the threaded handle a separate locking member 49 is loosely contained. The lever is pivoted upon a transverse pin 50 mounted in the housing 40 and within slot 46 an arcuate locking bar 51 having a radius centered upon pin 50 is fixedly mounted, the lever 48 having a recess therein to accommodate its movement with respect to the locking bar. Thus, upon rotation of handle 41 in one direction, the member 49, under the influence of the bottom of the threaded handle, frictionally engages the surface of bar 51 and prevents movement of lever 48 and upon rotation in an opposite direction movement is permitted. At its lower end the lever has pivotally connected thereto an elongated link 52 (Fig. 4) pivotally attached at its other end to one arm of a bell crank 53 which is mounted for rocking movement upon a bracket 54 disposed adjacent the central portion of the bottom plate of the form. This bell crank has its other arm 55 offset (Fig. 3) to bring the extremity of that arm 55 closer to the center line of the form and into the region behind the front support member 24 of the form. At the extreme end of arm 55 there is pivotally attached thereto an elongated rod 56, the other end of which extends upwardly of the form to a point relatively close to the region in which the waist control of bag size is to be exerted. At its upper extremity, this rod 56 rigidly carries a double pulley 57. A flexible wire 58 having its ends anchored on a bracket 59 afiixed to the front support member 24 of the form is threaded through the pulley and through eyelets mounted on the form and its intermediate portion slidably engages the bag as by means of a hem portion sewn therein to accommodate the wire. By this arrangement, a positive mechanical control is exerted upon the bag size adjusting means to a point closely adjacent the waist of the bag and the problems heretofore present in this type of apparatus, such as kinking of an elongated flexible wire, or frictional movement of a wire passing through a sharply bent armored cable, are avoided. As will be noted, due to the relative lengths of the several parts of the described linkage, movement of the handle 41 a short distance to the right in Fig. 4 causes pulley 57 to rise a substantially greater distance than the distance through which that handle is moved, since the arm 55 of the :bell crank 53 is longer than the other arm thereof (Fig. 4). This substantial up- Ward movement of the pulley 57 in turn results in the wire 58 rapidly attaining its maximum periphery as the bag to which it is attached distends under the influence of the processing fluids supplied thereto. Conversely, movement of the lever a short distance to the left rapidly reduces the periphery of the wire. The size of the waist portion of the bag may thus be rapidly adjusted to care for a wide variety of sizes and styles of garments with a minimum of effort on the part of the operator.

As an important feature of the invention, the arcuate surface 45 of housing 40 is provided with indicia 39 (Fig. 1) showing the required setting of handle 41 for processing the waist sizes of various garments. These indicia are readily visible to the operator at his normal station and in contrast to the push-pull type of adjusting means no bending of the operator is needed in order to insure that the adjusting means is at its correct setting. Moreover, the locking and unlocking of the adjusting means to and from a specified setting is easily accomplished by a twist of the wrist.

For the purpose of selectively adjusting the hip size of the bag, lever 60, see Figs. 2, 3 and 5, is similarly pivoted on pin 50 and connected at one end to handle 42 which moves in slot 61 of the housing 40. A locking bar 62 of the type described is disposed in that slot and at its lower end the lever has pivotally connected thereto. one end of elongated link 63. At its other end the link is pivotally attached to one arm of a bell crank 64 (also having arms of unequal length) which is mounted for rocking movement in a bracket 65 disposed adjacent the center of the bottom plate of the form. This bell crank has an arm 66 offset (Fig. 3) to bring its extremity closer to the center line of the form and into the region behind the front support member 24 of the form and at its extreme end has pivotally attached thereto a rod 67, the other end of which extends upwardly of the form to a point relatively close to the region in which the hip control of the bag size is to be exerted. At its upper extremity this rod rigidly carries a double pulley 68. A flexible wire 69 having its ends anchored on a bracket 70 afiixed to the form is threaded through the pulley and through eyelets mounted on the form and its intermediate portion slidably engages the bag in the hip region thereof. If desired, suitable supplementary guiding links, one of which is shown at 71 in Fig. 2, may be employed to provide additional mechanical stability to the linkages above described. Another supplementary guiding link 71A is shown in Fig. 4.

For the purpose of selectively adjusting the size of the bag in the region of the bottom of along garment, such as an overcoat or a dress, lever 72-, see Figs. 2, 3, 6 and 8, is similarly pivoted on pin 50 and connected at one end to handle 43 which moves in slot 73 of the housing 40. A locking bar 74 of the type described, but which may be engaged upon its side rather than on its top surface, is disposed in that slot and at its lower end the lever has pivotally connected thereto one end of elongated link 75. At itsother end the link is pivotally attached to one end of a bell crank 76 also having arms of unequal length and which bell crank is mounted for rocking movement on bracket 65. This bell crank has an arm 77' olfset (Fig. 3) to bring its extremity close to the center line of the form and into the region in front of the rear support member 27 of that form and at its extreme end carries. a pin 78; On this pin a holder 79 for. a double pulley 80 is rotatably mounted and with the. pulley adjacent the region in which the bag size control is to be exerted. A flexible wire 81 having its aseasea ends anchored on a bracket 82 aflixed to the form is threaded through the pulley and its intermediate portion slidably engages the bag in the bottom region thereof. For convenience, this wire may pass through holes in the form near the bottom plate andnear the rear support member of the form.

As noted from Fig. 2A, the bottom plate may be provided with an annular ledge 85 of greater diameter than the plate and with a depending flange 86 which by means of a sealing member 87 serves to seal the space between the form and the base assembly. At the front, the housing 40 is adapted to mount the lever 44 of the front clamp as by means of a removable adaptor 88 and at the rear to mount the lever 89 of the rear clamp as by means of a similar adaptor 90.

The housing 40 is compactly arranged and each of levers 48, 60 and 72 preferably is of the same length and pivoted on the same pin 50, thedifferences in travel of the several pulleys being accommodated by differences in the dimensions of the bell cranks. No lubrication of the various mechanical linkages is required, as sometimes is required for draw wires encased in cables bent about short radii.

It will be understood that the bag when assembled upon the form is adapted to be tightened at its extreme lower edge, as seen in Fig. 9, against the lower annular ledge 85 of the plate 25 as by means of a drawstring 91 and with the hem 92 of the bag containing the wire 81 lying well above the upper surface of that annular ledge.

With the foregoing description in mind, the several objectives of the invention will now be seen to be accomplished when the following operation is followed. After the demountable form, with its attachments is placed upon the base assembly with the bottom of the bag tied in place and with electrical current supplied to timer and steam supplied to coil 14, a garment is placed upon the collapsed bag 10. If desired, one or both of the front and rear clamps may be operated to hold the garment against the bag and the bag in turn against the form support members. Depending upon the size of the garment, the several handles 41, 42 and 43 are set in locked position and timer 2.0 is operated. At this time, the automatic flow of processing fluids into the bag takes place and the operator can then pass on to the operation of one or more other finishers while the garment is being finished on the described apparatus. As fluid under pressure passes into the bag, the bag distends, fills the garment, and adopts a size determined by the setting of those control handles and the flexible wires controlled thereby. Upon completion of the finishing the clamps are loosened, the garment removed and a new garment installed. If the second garment is of the same size as the first, no adjustment of the control handles is required, but if of a different size, the handles are unlocked, shifted to a marked position corresponding to the new size of garment and relocked, after which the timer is again actuated, all of these operations taking place at a single operating control station.

It thus will be seen that our improved apparatus is especially constructed to serve the convenience of the operator and to minimize the exertion required in the finishing of a large number of garments.

Having thus described a particular embodiment of the invention, it will be understood that we do not wish to be limited thereto since many modifications can be made. We therefore contemplate, by the appended claims, to cover any such modifications as fall within the true spirit and scope of the invention.

What we claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

1. In a garment finisher having a distendable, fluidpervious bag, a base assembly including means for supplying processing fluids into said bag, a form mounted upon said assembly and supporting said bag, and a flexible wire slidably aifixed to said bag for establishing the periphery thereof in a region intermediate the ends thereof; the improvement comprising means for selectively adjusting the effective periphery of said wire and including a pivoted lever mounted upon said form and having a handle at a first end and a link pivotally connected to a second end thereof, a bell crank pivotally mounted upon said form and having a first arm connected to said link, a rod pivotally connected at a first end thereof to the second arm of said bell crank and a pulley mounted upon the second end of said rod, said flexible wire having its ends anchored to said form and its intermediate portion threaded through said pulley and slidably engaging said bag.

2. A garment finisher as defined in claim 1 including, a housing attached to said form and enclosing said lever, and readily visible indicating means located on said housing adjacent the first endof said lever for relating the position of said lever to a predetermined effective periphery of said wire.

3. A- garment finisheras defined in claim 1 including, a housing attached to said form and enclosing said lever, a slot in said housing through which said lever extends, a locking member mounted upon said housing, and means rotatably joining said handle to said lever adjacent said locking member for locking engagement of said handle and lever with and unlocking disengagement thereof from said member.

4. In a garment finisher having a distendable, fluidpervious bag, a base assembly including means for supplying processing fluids into said bag, a form mounted upon said assembly and supporting said bag, and a plurality of flexible wires slidably afiixed to said bag for independently establishing the operating peripheries thereof in a plurality of spaced regions intermediate the ends thereof, the improvement comprising a separate lever pivotally mounted upon said form for each of said wires, each lever having a handle at a first end and a link pivotally connected thereto at a second end thereof, a bell crank pivotally mounted upon said form and having a first arm connected to said link, a rod pivotally connected at a first end thereof to the second arm of the bell crank and a pulley mounted upon the second end of said rod, each of said wires having its ends anchored to said form and its intermediate portion threaded through its corresponding pulley and slidably engaging said bag in its corresponding spaced region.

5. A garment finisher as defined in claim 4 wherein each of said levers is pivoted upon the same axis.

6. A garment finisher as defined in claim 4 including a drawstring for fastening the extreme lower end of said bag around said form.

7. A garment finisher as defined in claim 4 wherein the handle of each of said levers is located closely adjacent the handle of each of the other levers thereby to provide a single operating station for adjusting the size of said bag.

8. A garment finisher having a distendable, fluid-pervious bag, a base assembly including means for supplying processing fluids into said bag, a form mounted upon said assembly and supporting said bag, a lever housing attached to said form, a plurality of flexible wires slidably aflixed to said bag for establishing the operating peripheries thereof in a plurality of spaced regions in termedi-ate the ends thereof, a separate lever pivotally mounted in said housing for each of said wires, each lever having a handle at a first end and a link pivotally connected thereto at a second end, a bell crank pivotally mounted upon said form and having a first arm connected to said link, a rod pivotally connected at a first end thereof to the second arm of said bell crank, a pulley mounted upon the second end of said rod and engaging its corresponding wire for effecting adjustment thereof upon movement of said lever, slots in said housing through which each of said levers extends, a locking member mounted upon said housing adjacent each of said slots and means rotatably joining the handle of each lever to each lever adjacent the locking member for the lever whereby rotation of said handle in one direetion acts to 'lock said lever against pivoted movement thereof and rotation in an opposite direction acts to unlock said lever and to permit pivoted movement thereof with actuation of a corresponding Wire through actuation of the corresponding linkage.

9. A garment finisher as defined in claim 8 including a front clamp adapted'to engage said bag against said form and having a handle mounted upon said housing adjacent said levers thereby to provide a single operating station for adjusting the size of said bag and for clamping said bag to said form.

10. In a garment finisher having a distendable, fluidpervious bag, a base assembly comprising means for supplying processing fluids into said bag and including a stationary steam column having a bearing seat at the upper end thereof, a form mounted upon said assembly and supporting said bag, said form having a bearing member removably and rotatably seated upon said bearing seat for rotation of said form with respect to said assembly and for removal of said form from said assembly, a flexible wire sIidably affixed to said bag for establishing the periphery thereof in a region intermediate the ends thereof, and'a housing attached to said form, a lever pivotally mounted in said housing and having a handle at a first end and a link pivotally connected to a second end, a bell crank pivotally mounted upon said form and having a first arm connected to said link, a rod pivotally connected at a first end to the second arm of said bell crank, and a pulley mounted upon the second end of said rod and engaging said wire for adjustment thereof upon movement of said lever.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 341,923 Laing et a1. May 18, 1886 531,508 Clark Dec. 25, 1894 2,170,126 Cleophas Aug. 22, 1939 2,736,471 Jackson Feb. 28, 1956 2,805,009 Jackson Sept. 3, 1957 

